Data is a vital aspect of testing that we do, be it functional tests or unit tests. However, a lot of times in software development the data is “estimated” and not necessarily well defined. Eventually when going to deployment and the existing data which needs to be migrated is about to be transferred, the team discovered to the horror that the data is slightly different – this could range from missing data to repeating of key columns. As a result last minute modifications are made and minimally tested before being deployed and hoping for the best.

So if it works, that’s great! But an earlier test deployment generally helps avoid this risk, or delaying the release until the data is ready (the system can’t be used if there is no data after all).

I would normally reserve non-technical posts for my personal blog, but think that given the attention it caught that I would post it here.

“At last, Musharraf is gone!” is what most people in Pakistan would say. But don’t we always start accusing government of corruption and malpractice at the cost of Pakistan’s poor after 2 or 3 years of their resign.

Each of Pakistan’s government could be summed up by a quote from a 1999 movie Sunshine based on two great Hungarian Jews who won Gold in 1936 Berlin Olympics. Valerie comments:

“I have seen the collapse of government after government, and they all think they can last a thousand years. Each new one always declares the last one criminal and corrupt, and always promises a future of justice and freedom.”

Musharraf sold out (to some foreign power) lots of Pakistanis by means of disappearances. Probably the most famous one is known as “Prisoner 650” (Dr. Afia Siddiqui) – an MIT PhD graduate who studied genetics was kidnapped by Pakistan’s intelligence agency (ISI) and held in Afghanistan without any charges and for more than 4 years (and counting) and tortured (beyond mental capacity). Her husband, 3 small children, had to endure life of uncertainty.

Other political parties in Pakistan are being ruled like a sub-Monarchy. The current leading party – PPP was handed down to Benazir by her father, and now – temporarily to her husband until her son is capable of taking over after finishing his education from Oxford University. It is a culture where the elite pursue super-elitism without any sense of fairness.

Pakistan’s history has been rather cyclical in the past fifty year, because no new figure has really emerged in the political scene!